Worst VG endings ever (spoilers)

[Zack Burner]

To some gamers nothing is more frustrating than having a real lame ending that makes the whole experience fall flat on its face. I'll start with some infamous examples:

Ghostbusters (NES) - anyone who grew up in the 80's will know how painful this game is and the ending just rubs salt in the wounds with a text based ending, calling it a great game and chock full of gramatical errors.

Spider-man/Venom Separation Anxiety (SNES) - whereas Maximum Carnage had a nifty developed ending, this is just a simple screen saying "Game End" with no story or anything, talk about lazy.

Wargods (N64) - any ending in this dreadful game is just a simple screen with your character holding the prize with no story.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES) - this is debatable, but some won't like the whole "It was just a dream" thing, I'd like to feel real to get the real deal.

Castlevania (NES) - good thing there were sequels because the ending of this one is just the castle crumbling and then the goofy names of the staff, which is fun at first but lame in the long standing run. The arcade game Haunted Castle is even worse, just shows Simon and his bride just watching the castle crumble and then it's back to the first stage.

Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday (SNES) - after all the fun, if easy to navigate nightmares, the ending just shows more shadows and the eyes of Porky wandering off.

[Cafeman]

In Pitfall the Mayan Adventure, if you go through the trouble of collecting all PITFALL letters, all you get is a screen telling you to take a picture of your accomplishment.

In James Bond 007 for 2600, the game just ends back at the Title Screen. Not sure if other versions change that because I don't have the patience to beat them.

If you beat the OG Pitfall, the game simply freezes with no reward. Of course, limited memory in those early days is the explanation. Contrast that with the nice jumping for joy ending for Pitfall 2, and better yet the 2nd adventure ending on 5200 where Harry and gang climb a rope out of the caves.

[DaHeckIzDat]

Omori. You spend the whole game thinking the hero, Sunny, is falsely blaming himself for his sister's suicide and working towards the realization that he's not responsible for other people's actions. It would have been a satisfying, if not 100% happy, ending to an emotional roller coaster of a game.

Then you find out his sister didn't kill herself, Sunny killed her and staged her body as a suicide. The whole "journey" he's been on has been him pretending that his sister's ghost came back to forgive him and tell him to move on. And if you get the "good" ending, Sunny learns how to be happy again, confesses his crime...AND THEN GETS TO MOVE TO ANOTHER CITY WHERE NOBODY KNOWS HE'S A MURDERER. No consequences to face, no negative reaction to his confession. Hell, one of the friends he confesses to was his sister's boyfriend who went into a depressed funk for a few years because of what Sunny did. And what happens when Sunny comes clean right in front of him? Flash forward to Sunny going to his new home with a smile on his face.

I actually liked the game up that point, but after the ending I feel like the game as a whole was tainted.

[Stalvern]

One of my friends has been streaming Cyberpunk 2077 and just finished it. Holy moly, what a lousy ending. Treats the player character as if they're dead even though they've uploaded their mind to a computer and can download to a new robot body whenever they want. Completely ignores the new life they've just started, as well as all of the NPC stories' loose ends, so we can instead watch Keanu Reeves in the player character's body teach some kid the true meaning of punk rock. (He needs to write simple, easily understood songs that aren't "too heady", if you were wondering. This is coming from a game that randomly quotes T. S. Eliot minutes earlier.) The whole climax leading up to it was so stupid that we decided it must have been written at the last minute by different people from the rest of the game.

[ThePixelatedGenocide]

Omori. You spend the whole game thinking the hero, Sunny, is falsely blaming himself for his sister's suicide and working towards the realization that he's not responsible for other people's actions. It would have been a satisfying, if not 100% happy, ending to an emotional roller coaster of a game.

Then you find out his sister didn't kill herself, Sunny killed her and staged her body as a suicide. The whole "journey" he's been on has been him pretending that his sister's ghost came back to forgive him and tell him to move on. And if you get the "good" ending, Sunny learns how to be happy again, confesses his crime...AND THEN GETS TO MOVE TO ANOTHER CITY WHERE NOBODY KNOWS HE'S A MURDERER. No consequences to face, no negative reaction to his confession. Hell, one of the friends he confesses to was his sister's boyfriend who went into a depressed funk for a few years because of what Sunny did. And what happens when Sunny comes clean right in front of him? Flash forward to Sunny going to his new home with a smile on his face.

I actually liked the game up that point, but after the ending I feel like the game as a whole was tainted.

This is one of the few endings to make me actively hate a game.

At least MK4's horrible endings are endearing.

[Robotrek]

Firewatch.

Yeah yeah yeah, "IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THAT, IT'S SECRETLY GENIUS". Whatever. No, that's a bullcrap excuse for an empty ending that makes the whole thing feel like it was a waste of time. It doesn't just make getting to her tower feel like a waste of time, it makes the whole GAME feel like a waste of time. I don't care what people say about it being disappointing on purpose to give you a sense of immersion of whatever. It's just a horrible ending and people are making dumb excuses for it!

[RDReynolds]

[quote="Zack Burner]Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES) - this is debatable, but some won't like the whole "It was just a dream" thing, I'd like to feel real to get the real deal.[/quote]

No joke this is one of my all time favorite endings. I sometimes play the end music when I am trying to sleep! Lol

[icepeople]

I feel like I've seen this topic before, but if not at the VGC here's my (un)fav ending from Infocom's Infidel, one of the company's earliest and more challenging text adventures...and certainly the one with the least likable protagonist...

>open sarcophagus
You lift the cover with great care, and in an instant you see all your dreams come true. The interior of the sarcophagus is lined with gold, inset with jewels, glistening in your torchlight. The riches and their dazzling beauty overwhelm you. You take a deep breath, amazed that all of this is yours. You tremble with excitement, then realize the ground beneath your feet is trembling, too.
As a knife cuts through butter, this realization cuts through your mind, makes your hands shake and cold sweat appear on your forehead. The Burial Chamber is collapsing, the walls closing in. You will never get out of this pyramid alive. You earned this treasure. But it cost you your life.
And as you sit there, gazing into the glistening wealth of the inner sarcophagus, you can't help but feel a little empty, a little foolish. If someone were on the other side of the quickly-collapsing wall, they could have dug you out. If only you'd treated the workers better. If only you'd cut Craige in on the find. If only you'd hired a reliable guide.
Well, someday, someone will discover your bones here. And then you will get your fame.

[Den]

To me, the appeal of the SMB2 ending wasn't the "it's all a dream" twist, but that it had full-screen animation that looked like a cartoon! That was so rare in the NES days.

[Stalvern]

The whole premise of Super Mario Bros. 2 is that Mario & co. are saving the dream world of Subcon. The idea that the ending is any kind of twist is ridiculous.